The Bohemian Quarter – a chapter of Czech history in the heart of Berlin

In the heart of Berlin’s Neukölln neighborhood is Rixdorf, an area that
is also known as the Bohemian Village. The settlement originated in the
first half of the 18th century, under the auspices of the Prussian King
Friedrich Wilhelm I., who welcomed Bohemian Protestant refugees into his
empire. In the Habsburg Empire, they had been banned from exercising their
faith. We recently visited this fascinating area of Berlin and talked to
Cordelia Polinna,, the director of the Bohemian Museum, which is devoted
to
the history of this neighborhood.

Rixdorf, photo: Bohemian Museum in Rixdorf
Few areas of Berlin are as heavily impacted by immigration as Neukölln, a
neighborhood dominated by Turkish fast-food stands and Arabic grocery
stores, with residents of this one Berlin district hailing from about 160
different countries. But immigration to this area is not just a recent
phenomenon: In fact, it started some 275 years ago, when a group of
Bohemian Protestants arrived here. They came to what was then just a small
village outside of Berlin because they had been banned from exercising
their faith in the Habsburg Empire. Today, the Bohemian Museum in Rixdorf
traces the journey of these immigrants, as well as the heyday of the
Bohemian Quarter. Its director is Cordelia Polinna, who explains how these
religious refugees ended up in Prussia.

“After the 30-years-war, which ended in 1648, it was really important
for the kings who were ruling at the time to repopulate the countryside,
because it was depopulated, a lot of villages had ceased to exist and
there
was not a lot of trade, for example.

Rixdorf, photo: jkb, CC 3.0 license
“So the kings conceived this idea to invite refugees from all over
Europe, for example the Huguenots, the Salzburger, the Pfälzer, and among
them also the Bohemians and the Moravians, to come to Berlin and the areas
surrounding it in order to found new villages. They were given building
materials to construct houses and a set of animals, two horses and two
cows, and a set of farming tools, so that they would be able to start
working on the soil and establishing a livelihood.”

Of course, the freedom of being able to exercise their Protestant faith
was one of the main draws for these refugees to establish residence in
Prussia. In addition, they were freed of certain taxes and did not have to
serve in the military, an important factor for many devout believers who
refused to go to war because of their faith.

Quickly, the Rixdorf area became a prosperous one. The Bohemians, who
arrived here in 1737, worked as farmers and weavers. Most of them hailed
from a small village in East Bohemia near Ustí nad Orlicí. Soon, the
village started to grow and blossom. A church and a cemetery were built,
and in 1753, a school opened its gates in the Bohemian quarter. However,
the architecture did not resemble that of the refugees’ native region, a
fact that puzzles historians to this day.

Rixdorf, photo: Bohemian Museum in Rixdorf
“That is very strange, we have been trying to research that and have not
been able to clear that up. It is definitely not what the villages in
Bohemia look like. Because those people who can trace their ancestors back
to Bohemia, know the houses there and they are very different from the
ones
that have been built here in Berlin. The housing structure was quite
elaborate and interesting. Nine houses were erected, split into two parts,
so that two families could live in each house, side by side. The big walls
faced each other to save energy and create courtyards. That was a very
interesting and regular building structure, and it looks very much like a
planned village.

“So nobody really knows how that came about. It may have been the same
architect who was behind the expansion in Südliche Friedrichsstadt, a
very
Baroque expansion, who drew the plans for the village. We don’t think it
was the Bohemians themselves, for that, it was too planned and too
constructed. And we also are not sure how exactly this arrival happened.
We
know that they came here as a big group, around 350 refugees. And they
must
have camped somewhere in the meantime. Some of them were taken in by other
families for some months while these buildings were erected. So the exact
process of their arrival is hard to trace.”

Rixdorf Cemetery, photo: jkb, CC 3.0 license
Once the Bohemians had established their own village, the role of faith
quickly became central to the community. Today, the Bohemian Museum
displays a lot of religious costumes and pictures from the early days.
Cordelia Pollina showed me around the exhibition room at my recent visit
to
the museum.

“The Bohemian Village here in Rixdorf back then was a center of Czech
people in Prussia. This area really became an area important for book
printing, in the Czech language. We have here some old bibles and hymn
books, which were printed in Germany, in Czech, for Protestant churches in
Bohemia and Moravia, because at that time, it was forbidden for
Protestants
to print their own bibles. And that is why some of these bibles are very
small, they were designed that way so that it was easier to smuggle them
back to Moravia and Bohemia. So we have a number of those historic books.
Berlin at the time was a center of Czech printing at the time.”

That is fascinating. And I see here in this display case, you have
some
traditional costumes. Now who would have worn those?

Rixdorf, photo: Bohemian Museum in Rixdorf
“The Czech people who came to Berlin were heavily influenced by the
Moravian Church, the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeinde, which was founded by
Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a nobleman who had been brought up in the
traditions of Pietism. And it was also one of the first places where they
took a break from their escape and then later on, they moved on to Berlin.
This church was a very pietistic one, almost comparable to the Calvinistic
tradition. Zinzendorf believed that people should be dressed equal in
front
of God. That no one should wear fancy hats or clothes during the service.
And so he created this traditional dress code.

“Long black dresses for the women, and special aprons or shoulder
scarves for more festive occasions. Another special element is the
headdress, the so-called Haube, a small kind of hat, that had ribbons in
different colors which indicate whether the woman was married, a widow or
still to be had.”

So religion was a key factor in this community?

Rixdorf, photo: jkb, CC 3.0 license
“Definitely. Religion was very important, the Pietistic tradition was
very important. It was forbidden to go to big dance parties, to gamble, to
drink alcohol. Although Neukölln at the time was a center of leisure, a
place for the working classes to go and enjoy themselves and drink beer,
which was brewed in the many nearby breweries. There were a lot of
brothels
and prostitution but the Bohemian Village really distanced itself from
that.”

While in those days, the Bohemian Village was an actual village outside of
the big city, Berlin has expanded since, so that to visitors today, the
rural-looking cobble streets of Rixdorf, with their expansive houses and
barns, look quite odd considering the bustling city streets are just a
stone’s throw away. Does the Czech heritage continue to play a role
here?

“For some people, especially the descendants of the Bohemians, it is
very important to keep the Czech heritage alive and remember it. We as a
museum also do try to do that. We have the Comenius Garden next to the
museum, a very nice little park that commemorates Jan Comenius, and Ustí
nad Orlici is our twin city. So there are a lot of people that keep the
tradition alive.

“We also have a Christmas market, and Czechs come here to sell crafts.
So I think there is quite an intense exchange and we want to pass that on
to the next generation, especially now that the Cold War is over and it is
much easier to meet up. So we want to keep the Czech heritage alive even
into the younger generations.”

For those interested in learning more about the Bohemian heritage of the
German capital, a visit to the Bohemian Museum in Neukölln is highly
recommended.